Re: [ECOS] problems creating GDB-stub (redboot) and getting eCos running on hardware

[Hugo Tyson <hmt at redhat dot com>]

Arif.Abbas@combitechsystems.com writes:
> I am using a product called the mediaEngine from Brightstar Engineering.
> (using a StrongArm CPU).  Anywayz, since eCos doesn't specificaly support
> this board, I thought I could pick the on "that was most similiar"
> (Thanks Hugo Tyson and everyone else who helped med out last time!)  In
> this case, it was the nanoEngine, from the same manufacturer.

> If we do change the COM1 speed to 38400 Baud, we instead encounter a
> different kind of error:

> +FLASH: 0x50000000 - 0x50400000, 64 blocks of 0x00010000 bytes each.
> FLASH configuration checksum error or invalid key

This just means RedBoot has not yet initialized the flash to contain valid
data.  The "fconfig" and "fis init" commands are the answer.

Assuming that it then hangs, it is doing one of two things: 1) trying to
bring up the network using BOOTP - so wait and eventually you'll get a
"RedBoot>" prompt when it times out, or 2) hung up trying to initialize
some hardware that's different or absent on the mediaEngine.  Probably the
ethernet.

> So my questions are:
> 
> 1) Has anyone encountered similiar problems?

Yes, every time you put RedBoot into a new board.

> 2) Does eCos only care about the CPU-commands, or does it have to know where
> ALL hardware is?
>    What I mean is that as I mentioned before, the CPU is the same, the flash
> and SDRAM have the same adresses, but then
>    there are some major differences when it comes to
> Ethernetdrives,serialports etc etc etc

Only if your configuration is set to use that extra hardware.

Serial is built-in to the SA1110 device - and it obviously works OK.

RedBoot for nanoEngine will try to use the BSE nanoBridge chip to talk to
one or two i82559 ethernet devices; if these are absent in your board, it
may crash or hang.  I guess you need to change RedBoot to not try to use
those.  Build RedBoot with no ethernet support ("ecosconfig remove
CYGPKG_IO_ETH_DRIVERS" in your build place, then rebuild from scratch) and
it should come up OK from what you say about the rest of the board being
the same as nanoEngine.
 
> 3) What kind of changes is one supposed to do in order to taylor eCos to
> EXACTLY match my platform?
>     I mean the profile I have now is for nanoEngine, which is supposed to be
> the closest relative available
>     to the maediaEngine. Do I perform the changes in the Config Tool? Or
> what do I do??
> 4) How do I taylor Redboot binaries for specifically my platform??

Change the configuration to match your board, in the CT or a the command
line as above.  Then if you want to use the ethernet device that you have
instead of the i82559, you must find a driver and write code to use it, or
write a whole new driver.

	- Huge